


My Favorite What If

by jbird181



Series: 13 Days of Falling in Love [8]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Post-Episode: s02e08 And the Point of Salvation, Touching, Vague mentions of sex, catching feelings, gratuitous kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 21:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9627038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jbird181/pseuds/jbird181
Summary: If Ezekiel had met Stone in a bar, he would've bought him a drink. However, he met Stone in the Library.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 8: Friends With Benefits/Friends to Lovers
> 
> Title is from [Fourth of July](https://youtu.be/1j4Pf228vhE) by Fall Out Boy. 
> 
> Disclaimer: This is not at all what I originally intended to write. Inspiration is a strange thing.

Stone touching Ezekiel is not new, but it’s different after the video game loop. Now it’s deliberate: an unnecessary pat on the back, a hand on Ezekiel’s chest for a moment too long, a brush of his fingers when Stone hands him something. It’s driving Ezekiel crazy.

It’s no secret that Stone’s conventionally attractive. After all, he’s got the _body_ and the _eyes_ and the _smile_. If Ezekiel had met Stone in a bar, he would've bought him a drink. However, he met Stone in the Library.

Ezekiel can't exactly pinpoint when his physical attraction to and friendship with Stone changed. It's not something more or less, his feelings are just different. They’ve changed, which makes sense because Ezekiel has too.

Watching your friends die over and over will do that to a person.

But that's besides the point. The point is Stone keeps touching him, and staring at him, and it's making Ezekiel want to either tell him off or push him against the nearest wall.

Maybe both.

Stone’s staring now. They're _supposed_ to be organizing files of past cases, because the past Librarians have a pattern of being very messy, and “it's important to be able to quickly access pertinent information” according to Eve. Not that Ezekiel doesn't agree.

He knows firsthand that few seconds are sometimes all that stand between you and death. If you can take out your gun faster than your opponent, well, congrats, you live to see another day.

Ezekiel shakes his head, fighting off memories of MI6 and… more recent situations.

Stone’s staring at him. Again. “Mate, what's your problem?”

“What?”

“You've been staring at me for the past five minutes.”

Stone honest-to-god blushes, and this is very bad. Ezekiel had kept himself from saying or doing anything he’d regret to Stone with three simple facts:

One, Stone treated Ezekiel like an irresponsible little brother.

Two, they were co-workers.

And three, he had no idea if Stone even swung that way.

But ever since the video game loop, Stone has acted differently around Ezekiel. He's finally been treating Ezekiel like an equal. Besides, Eve and Flynn work together too, and they're dating.

“You look… nice today,” says Stone. And as for that third fact, if Stone isn't bisexual, Ezekiel’s gaydar is irreparably broken.

“Thank you.” _God, he needs to leave_ , Stone looks so genuine and nervous and _kissable._

 _Stone reaches for his shoulder but touches his neck instead, and Ezekiel’s had it._ He pushes Stone up against the nearest bookcase and kisses him with everything he’s been holding back since he first met the man. Their bodies fit together perfectly, gangly limbs and broad shoulders somehow making sense in context with each other. Ezekiel moves instinctively, changing the angle, increasing the pressure. Stone's hand finds its way into his hair after a moment, and Stone’s all tough on the outside, but he responds by kissing back so gently it's its own kind of pain. 

Ezekiel thinks this is what losing your mind feels like, a slow slide of lips against tongue, and then Stone opens his mouth and Ezekiel forgets how to breathe.

“ _Ezekiel_ ,” says Stone when they pull away, with something like wonder in his eyes, and Ezekiel laughs breathlessly.

Stone kisses him again.

***

As a general rule, they don't talk about it. _It_ being that, when given the chance, he and Stone will make out in corners of the Library. _It_ being the sex. (It's good.)

And this works just fine for Ezekiel. He doesn't like to mix fucking and feelings: in his experience that always ends messily, and not in a good way.

The only problem is it's a little too late for that.

Sometimes, as they're coming down off an orgasm in Stone’s bed, or Ezekiel’s, and Stone’s hair is all ruffled, both their shirts long-since-abandoned, and Stone smiles up at him like there’s no place else he’d rather be, Ezekiel thinks, _I should end this_.

He should, he really should, because in those moments he wants _more,_ more than just secretive sex and sneaking out of Stone’s apartment building before the sun rises, and that's _scary as hell._

***

Stone finds him in the Library ten minutes after Ezekiel wanders away from the others as to not arouse suspicion. “Hey,” he says.

“Hey,” says Ezekiel and kisses him roughly, already fiddling with Stone’s shirt buttons, red plaid today. The shirt, not the buttons. Just like usual, Stone matches his intensity.

But then he steps away. _Shit._

“Ezekiel,” he says, then clears his throat, tries again. “Ezekiel, what are we doing here?”

“What do you want to do? I've got plenty of lube.”

“That's not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean?”Ezekiel replays the events of the last few weeks in his mind.  _Had he done something wrong?_

“I mean I don't want to keep doing this.”

“Oh.” It was only a matter of time. He had only been prolonging the inevitable. It's Ezekiel's own fault: he'd known this was a mistake, but he did it anyways, and now he had to deal with the fallout of his stupidity.   

Stone scrubs a hand through his hair. “No, I don't mean the… _you know_. I mean the hiding. The secrets." He lets out a long breath. "I’d really like to date you. Officially. If you want.”

 _Oh._ Ezekiel feels slightly dizzy, because this can't be happening. Good things don't happen to him. “I… I’d like that.”

“Really?” Stone grins.

“Really.” He _really, really_ would.

“Can I kiss you now?” asks Stone, adorably shy for someone who’s done a whole lot more.

Ezekiel kisses him, slow and gentle. He pulls back and rests his forehead on Stone’s. “You may.”


End file.
